Arriving in New York City

The mist and fog were not super dense but enough to drive us into rain gear and to hide the more distant parts of land. Sila motored slowly against the current and under a bridge, modifying course every two minutes to avoid the many ships. Looking around in the port, I could see barges, ferries, and a few large buildings. I peered ahead and slowly the dark lines formed in the shape of the Manhattan sky line.

 In the fog, you can just see the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Mama was telling us that on a clear day, we would have a stunning view.

The Statue of Liberty, which started as just another outline in the fog, slowly became clearer until we sailed right up to the edge of the restricted waters around Liberty Island. The statue was exactly how I had pictured it. The pedestal was as tall as Lady Liberty herself and gave her the vantage point from which she could see our little sail boat motoring slowly by, taking pictures.The scene was exactly the way I had pictured it, except for all the fog.

Here we are aboard Sila sailing past the Statue of Liberty.

We sailed a mile or two up the Hudson River to a marina on 17th street, watching the sky scrapers emerge from the clouds. When the dock hand opened his mouth after helping catch our lines, I expected Spanish, Portuguese, or at least heavily accented English to pour out. Instead a blissfully easy-to-understand American voice gave us the basic marina info.

When we left Puerto Rico, we were bound for New York, our return to the mainland U.S. Of all the places to return to the United States, New York Harbor was one of the most fun. When I sat down for dinner in a New York restaurant, walked along the High Line, or rode the subway across the island, I did not feel like I was back in the United State. Languages from every corner of the earth filled the sidewalk, so the American English was not so dramatic. I also had never visited a big city in the U.S. before, so I did not know what to expect. It still felt like a continuation of sailing through foreign places. In contrast, when I walked around on City Island a few days later, it felt like the United States. American voices were everywhere, the architecture was American, and the grocery store was filled with American products. It really hit me, I was coming home.

Sailing back to New England has prompted much more than the visits of lots of friends, family members, and blog-readers. I now feel two completely different emotions. One side is sadness that we are moving off the boat. Sailing around the world has been the best part of my life and I will miss Sila as well as being on the water. As we sailed into New York, I found myself wishing that the eleven day passage had gone on a little longer. It was the first time I had ever felt that at the end of a passage.

The second side is excitement for what is coming next. As the four of us often say,"Sailing on Sila is an adventure, not a lifestyle." This means that the ending was planned from the beginning. We are about to complete three years, which is perfect as we planned to stop sailing between two and four years. I am looking forward to the seven weeks of summer camp starting in June. After that, I am looking forward to having friends whose relative position does not change between days.

The sadness and excitement are not conflicting, but separate. I only seem to have mental space for one or the other, so there are times when I feel sad about the coming ending and times when I feel excited about the coming beginning.-Porter